1. Field
The invention is in the field of devices and methods for putting desired information on film, particularly information regarding a photograph, substantially at the time the film is exposed for the photograph.
2. State of the Art
In many instances, it is desirable to place information about a photograph on the photograph for later reference. The most common way of doing this is to write the desired information on the back or other part of the photograph at the time it is taken if taken with an instant camera, or, if not with an instant camera, at the time the photographs are returned from the developer. If the noting of such information must await the return of the pictures from the developer, the desired information, such as exact date, location, name of subjects, or time of taking, may have been forgotten. Further, many times the information is not recorded on the photographs or becomes illegible and at a later date, when a question arises about it, the information has long been forgotten.
A number of systems for recording data on film have been proposed. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,478,657 and 3,733,985 show systems utilizing prerecorded information, such as dates, in contrasting data characters on a tape that is moved into position for recording on the film. The characters are generally opaque on a transparent background. These systems are limited in the information that can be recorded since such information has to be available on the prerecorded tapes.
German Pat. No. 2,710,735 shows an alpha-numeric keyboard as an input to an LED display so that a variety of information can be put onto the film. German Pat. No. 2,654,259 and Swiss Pat. No. 612,014 show somewhat similar arrangements.
With all currently proposed systems for putting data on film, the number of characters which can be placed on the film is severely limited. For example, with a system using an LED or LCD display for the characters, the number of characters that can be used is limited by the amount of memory in the driving circuit. While driving circuitry for up to about sixteen characters is readily and inexpensively available, the cost for additional memory to add additional characters increases very rapidly. Thus, providing driving circuitry for larger displays is impractical in a relatively low to moderately priced camera.
In many situations where it is desired to put information on film along with a photograph, such as in law enforcement or insurance adjusting work, to be really useful, more data than current systems can place on film is necessary. It is generally desirable to have more display characters than would be available using a normal sixteen digit display and driving circuitry.
All of the systems currently commercially available to recorad data on film are expensive, lack flexibility of information input, and none have been widely accepted in the marketplace.